The Justice Department wrote in a motion last week it needs time to rethink its 2016 request to halt North Carolina’s requirement that transgender people use restrooms in many public buildings corresponding to the sex on their birth certificates. The federal judge responded by issuing a stay that essentially freezes efforts begun by lawyers under President Barack Obama.

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The Justice Department’s move was foreshadowed when it joined the Department of Education to reverse guidelines that transgender students be allowed to use bathrooms corresponding to gender identity.